Places! Feb. 26-March 4

Here are some of the performing arts events opening on local stages this week. Plus, the list of last-chance shows.

Welcome to our weekly mega-list of performing arts happenings on TheaterJones! It covers a Thursday-to-Wednesday cycle, and rounds up our picks for the best theater, classical music, opera, dance, comedy, spoken word/poetry and performing arts on film that are opening on North Texas stages and in movie theaters. Of all the local print or digital publications, it's the only weekly list of best bets that covers the range of performing arts—and only performing arts.

This week is brought to you by three playwrights who are among the greatest in Western literature: Shakespeare, Euripides and Moliére. The latter two you can witness in repertory shows at the Dallas Theater Center in its new Classics Initiative, with Medea and The School for Wives.

As for Willy Shakes, his tragedies are explored by masterful monologist Mike Daisey at the AT&T Performing Arts Center; there's a musical exploration of the character Ophelia at the Nasher Sculpture Center; the Fort Worth Symphony and pianist Lang Lang play Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture; and you can catch two films at the Angelika Film Center, of productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe. The latter's production is The Duchess of Malfi by Shakespeare contemporary John Webster. Also, three Shakes plays close in Fort Worth (Stolen Shakes and Artes de la Rosa), and you can hang out at three Dallas bars with the gang of Shakespeare Dallas.

Also happening in this week's cycle: Open Classical begins a stint in Cowtown, Second Thought uncovers some Bull, Time Stands Still at Amphibian, and Brahms abounds.

This list doesn't have everything happening in this week's cycle, but we've hit the highlights. For more listings, click the red calendar button at the top right of the page, and then you'll see a search function, where you can search for events by presenting company, venue, title, description, date range and more options.

Note: Theater productions that have opened in a previous cycle and are in the middle of the run are not in the list below, but you can find them in the listings (see paragraph above). When a show is in its final weekend, we'll mention it in the "Last Chance" section of Places!

Mike Daisey, who is this country's greatest monologist since Spalding Gray, brings his series that explores four of Shakespeare's most famous plays that end in death—certainly for the title characters. Along the way, a few of their friends (and enemies) are killed off, too. Daisey hasn't performed in North Texas since he did his controversial How Theater Failed America and his Great Men of Genius series at WaterTower Theatre's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in 2010. The Great Tragedies is presented in the AT&T Performing Arts Center's Off-Broadway on Flora Series at Hamon Hall in the Winspear Opera House. A different play will be discussed at each performance. The schedule is:

Dallas Theater Center inaugurates its Classics Initiative with this pair of plays written thousands of years apart. Euripides' Medea stars Sally Nystuen Vahle in the title role, is directed by Kevin Moriarty and performed in the basement space at Kalita Humphreys Theater, in a "freely adapted" version by Robinson Jeffers. The other is Moliere's farce The School for Wives, in a Richard Wilbur translation, also directed by Moriarty. Expect something crazy-different, for both titles. Interestingly, DTC's season also features an adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and the 2013-14 season had a terrific take on Oedipus Rex. And of course Moriarty loves him some Shakespeare. I say all this to point out that while DFW sorely lacks a professional classics company that is not solely devoted to the Bard (god I miss Classical Acting Company), what DTC is doing is most welcome. | Currently in previews; both shows open March 1 and run in rotating repertory through March 29

Second Thought Theatre's production of Mike Bartlett's play Cock was a theatrical highlight of 2014, and the group opens its 2015 season with another play with a single-word title that's also a male animal, Bull. Christie Vela makes her STT directing debut, and the show is Second Thought's entry in the AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project—the fourth of six shows in the inaugural season. In the news release, Vela says that Bull is "a mean, nasty, downright dastardly look at the inner workings of office politics. Mike Bartlett's script is lean, mean and allows the inner bullies of several professional adults run rampant in a darkly comedic way." The production stars Alex Ross, Ian Ferguson, Natalie Young and Jeremy Schwartz. | Previews Feb. 26; opens Feb. 27 and runs through March 14

Aleisha Force stars in Time Stands Still at Amphibian Stage Productions

4. Time Stands Still

Amphibian Stage Productions, Fort Worth

Amphibian's 2015 mainstage season opens with the area premiere of Donald Margulies' Tony-nominated play about a photojournalist who was wounded in Iraq, and returns home to her foreign correspondent boyfriend, who wants them to stay in New York. NYC director Mary Catherine Burke, who directed Fiction for the 'Phibs, is at the helm; the production stars Jakie Cabe, Aleisha Force, Greg Holt and Kelsey Milbourn. | Feb. 26 through March 22

Stage West presents the Fort Worth premiere of local playwright Thomas Ward's funny and moving play about a burned out stand-up comic, who hooks up with a hotel clerk after a show. Thomas plays the comic and his real-life wife, Sherry, plays Dee; the play was first seen locally at WaterTower's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in 2012. Sherry was recently diagnosed with a rare disease called Stiff Person's Disease, and she wrote a beautiful blog about it on Facebook. For these performances, there will be mobility aid as needed. | Previews begin Feb. 26; opens Feb. 28 and runs through March 15

The Nasher Sculpture Series' Soundings series continues with this performance that looks at ideas of madness and betrayal in music, and features Brett Dean's String Quartet No. 2 ("And once I played Ophelia"), Arnold Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2 and works by Robert Schumann. | 8 p.m. Feb. 28

Robert Rain, who played the transexual glam rocker in this John Cameron Mitchell/Stephen Trask musical in Fort Worth more than 10 years ago, returns to star in the show at the Margo Jones Theatre, presented by the Other Half Theatre Experience | Feb. 27-March 14

Catch the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of the Shakespeare play, on screen at the Angelika Film Centers in Dallas and Plano. Note: In April, you'll be able to see the RSC's companion production of Love's Labour's Won, also known as Much Ado About Nothing | 7 p.m. March 3 and 2 p.m. March 25

» For complete listings of what's happening on North Texas stages, click on the calendar iconat the top right of the page. Once there, you can click the red "Search the Calendar" box, and search for listings by dates, performance type, the presenting company, titles or descriptions. For instance, type "Shakespeare" into the description field, click SEARCH and you'll find a host of performances (theater, dance, music, etc.) by, adapted from or about the Bard.

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